Colin Kaepernick Is More Than Qualified To Play in the NFL

San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick, left, and Blaine Gabbert stand on the sideline during their preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. AP / Tony Avelar

There has never been a moment in history when the cost of freedom wasn’t high. There has never been a moment when those who sought it didn’t pay the cost.

Just ask former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Ever since he decided to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and the systematic oppression of Black people in the United States, Kaepernick has been paying dearly for it.

After all, this is football; America’s pride and joy. There’s no protesting in football.

At least, that’s how his critics see it.

Of course, there are also folks out there who won’t even admit that the controversy surrounding Kaepernick’s protesting is the real reason why he’s been out of a job since the end of the 2016 season.

Instead, they’d rather dig up his most unflattering stats and point out all his failures to create a narrative of Kaepernick as a talentless athlete undeserving of a spot on an NFL roster.

This, however, couldn’t be further from the truth.

During an interview via NFL.com, Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said Kaepernick deserves to have a job, using Jacksonville as proof that he still has what it takes to compete at an NFL level.

Jenkins has also mentioned he absolutely thinks “that Colin Kaepernick is being blackballed.”

These statements are interesting considering that just last week, Eric Reid, the Carolina Panthers safety who was the first to join Kaepernick in protesting, was denouncing Jenkins as a “sellout” who has given up on the movement for selfish motivations.

Nevertheless, Jenkins’ support of Kaepernick isn’t misplaced, nor is it wrong.

Kaepernick has remained unsigned while other quarterbacks with less experience and less talent have been given multiple chances to start.

Take Blake Bortles, for example. The Jaguars quarterback looked competent during the preseason but, as most fans predicted, he’s simply not good enough.

So @JohnElway crapped all over Colin @Kaepernick7, saying he blew his chance to join the @Broncos. Now he's dealing with @Chadkelly_6, who got arrested last night for criminal trespassing. Oh, by the way, Colin has never been arrested. Elway blocked me, so send this his way! 🤣🤣

There are at least six other teams in the NFL that could use Kaepernick’s talents and experience, but they’d rather start young players with barely any professional experience (New York Jets Sam Darnold, for example) than a veteran who knows the game inside and out simply because he’s shown, publicly, that he cares about the mistreatment of Black people in this country.

Football fans, team owners, the mediaand even President Donald Trump all say that football, and sports in general, should be a space that is free of politics. In fact, since the inception of sports as a respectful, professional endeavor, audiences have held them to be a sort of “meritocracy”: If you have the skills, then you can play, despite your race, gender or sexuality. And yet, a man is being persecuted and blacklisted from the sport he loves (and relied on to make a living) simply because of his political choices.

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